The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-02-26
SNOW.SHOEING.
A Description of the National
Sport Of Canada
How . Shoe ID Made-A Clubs Run
"Across Countrywide Captain
and tho "Whipper-
Great "Time."

Three things have the 'red children of
the forest given to the white children
of the cities which are so perfect in
their way that it is hardly possible
there will ever be an invention filed in
the pigcon-holes Of the Patent Office at
Washington that will surpass them.
The canoe for shallow water and what
might be called ~cross-country naviga-
ton, the loboggan. and the snow-shoe
for deep snow, seem to be the very
crown of human ingenuity, even
though they are only the devices Of ig-
norant Indians. One al not help a
feeling of hearty admiration when
looking at them, and noting how per-
fcctly they fulfil the purpose for which
they were designed, and are at the
same time as light, graceful, and art
istic in form and fashion as the most
finished work of highly civilized folk.
They all follow the line of beauty so
closely that it is no wonder the ladies
love to decorate their drawing
rooms and boudoirs with them.
or to have their pins and
brooches modelled after them. To the
Indian the canoe, snow-shoe andtobog-
gan were quite as important imple-
ments as the spade, the plow and the
rake are to the farmer. Without them
he could not in winter time have
rOamed the snow-buried forests, whose
recesses supplied his table, or voyaged
in the summer time upon the broad
rivers and swift-running streams,
whose bountiful waters furnished him
their ready toll of fish. His white
brother has, in adopting them, put
them to u different use. He had no
particular need for them in his work.
but he was quick to see how they would
help him in his play, and ere long they
had all three become favoritc means of
sport and recreation.
Snow-shoeing disputes with toboggan-
ing the honor of being Canada's ma
tional winter sport; for although snow
shoes have been seen in Siberia and
Tartary. and IRE used to some extent
in Scandinavia, in none of these places
do the people derive much amuse-
ment from them. Simple as the
snox.shoe seems, I would not
adviss any one to try and
make a pair for himself. Only
tlp Indians can do this we'll, and even
in Canada the vast majority of shoes
arc put together by dusky hands. This
j. how they make a shoe of three feet
six inches. which is q fair average size:
A piece Of light ash about half an inch
thick, and at least ninety inches in
length, is bent to a long oval until the
two ends touch, when they are dashed
strongly together with catgut Two
strips Of tough wood about an inch
broad are then fitted across this frame,
one being placed about five inches from
the curving top, the other ONE twenty
inches from the tapcring end. The OBJ
ject of these strips is to give both
strength and spring to the shoe. The
three sections into which the interior
of the frame has thus been divided are
then wovcn across with catgut, each
having a different degree Of %fineness in
the mesh, the top section being very
fine, the middle section, upon which
almost the whole strain comes, coarse
and strong, and the end section a me.
dium grade between the other two.
The gut in tho middle section is wound
right around the framework for tho
sake Of greater strength, but in the
other two is threaded though holes
bored ct intervals Of an inch Or so.
Just behind the front cross-bar an
opening about four inches square is
left in tho gut netting, in order to allow
free play for the toes in lifting the
shoe at each step. Both wood and
gut must be thoroughly seasoned, or
else tho n will warp. and the other
stretch and sag until the shoe Is alto
gether useless.
.